How to Break Through
The Influence Blind Spot

Leaders are often surprised when we reveal who the 3% change catalysts are in their organizations. These reactions are outputs from deeply held assumptions about what makes someone influential.

For years, we’ve highlighted the counterintuitive characteristics of change catalysts such as:

They don’t fit the extrovert stereotype.
They aren’t necessarily top performers.
They don’t need years of tenure to make an impact.

This case tells another story of how CEOs and transformation executives react when discovering their true change catalysts.

When A Seasoned Executive Faces the Unknown

One company faced a commitment crisis.

External forces challenged every aspect of their operations, creating an air of uncertainty throughout the organization. The people were caught in the turbulence of these disruptions.

The executive recognized the need for a people-first approach to drive business and culture improvements. That’s when the executive partnered with us at Innovisor, to guide them along their journey: WHO to engage, WHAT to do, and HOW to do it.

When Influence is Out of Sight, Out of Mind

We identified the crucial 3% of employees who influenced 88% of the workforce through its proprietary #ThreePercentRule algorithm. This is always the moment of truth on how the evidence-based identification of the 3% reflects the specific context of the networks.

The room fell silent when we shared their 3%.
The executive started to think with his forehead furrowing in surprise

It was because one particular employee on the list challenged everything they thought they knew. This employee had never attended a single Town Hall meeting – not out of disengagement, but because this employee worked in asynchronous shifts. A case of out of sight, out of mind!

The executive started to talk about this with the transformation officer sitting in the same room. Then it dawned on them.

This employee had taken charge of an inclusion initiative that deeply aligned with personal purpose. The authenticity and commitment had transformed this employee into an influential voice in the company.

The Thing We Didn’t Know About Influence

This revelation isn’t unique to Innovisor. Innovisor has worked with many other clients pointing to a similar observation.

For example, one of our clients at Roche, Hemerson Paes, has been investigating the effect purpose has on network dynamics. He observed:

click to access the interview with Hemerson Paes

Influence is complex. It is even so complex that the people who are identified through the #ThreePercentRule often don’t know themselves that they have this effect on others.

The Greatest Change Asset is Invisible (Until Now)

We must embrace our limitations in understanding influence. Influence is a blind spot in every organization – resulting in two critical truths:

You cannot designate from the top someone to be the catalyst of change.
You cannot self-appoint yourself as someone to be the catalyst of change.

These blind spots actually hold the key to successful change. Within blind spots are the people you must engage to drive who can drive meaningful impact in your change journey. The power of the #ThreePercentRule algorithm lies in its ability to identify change catalysts with distinct, non-overlapping networks, maximizing impact through the smallest possible group – just 3% of your workforce.

What Does the Executive’s Journey Look Like?

The executive embraced the Innovisor Change Accelerator, our ready-to-go-solution that provided insights beyond just peer-identification of the 3% change catalysts. This people-first approach planned the executive’s journey with insights on: